Name: Yuma Tripp
Handle: DJ Tripp
Main Gig: Fridays at the Blue Lagoon
Music-Production Software Wish List: Acid Pro 2.0, Sound Forge 4.5, Fruityloops 2.5
Proof That Disco Never Died: "It's not so much the sound of that music as the familiarity of it. That was the start of the dance sound--people saying, 'It's a dance song, and it's so rad I've just got to dance.' It's a great thing to borrow, and I don't have to sample disco songs that everyone knows to get that feeling. I can take something from an obscure one and it just goes off."
Crucial Link: www.djtripp.com

Among local DJs, Yuma Tripp is something of the mad scientist. Most DJs have patented mixes that they routinely work into sets--clever sections of cut-and-mix or smooth segues guaranteed to crowd the dance floor. But Tripp custom crafts his own tracks, both remixes of dance music hits or his own sampled and synthesized originals, and drops them on packed houses at the Blue Lagoon.

"When I get home from gigs, a lot of the time I just try to figure out what worked and what didn't," he says. "Sometimes it's like, I thought it was great, but the crowd didn't like it, so what went wrong?"

Field testing has helped him build a sturdy repertoire of his own music--enough that he has taken spots on lineups for Rick Walker's Festival of Emerging Santa Cruz Electronica concerts with full sets of his original tracks. And a handful are strong enough to regularly show up among club sets. Still, the holy grail of club DJs remains elusive: "You really need to have something you can turn into the height for the night," he says. "Something that leaves everyone at the end of the night saying, 'Fuck, I've got to come back next week!"